Daniel Levy has regularly moved to reassure Tottenham fans that their stadium move will not affect their ability to spend in the transfer market, but his words and those of Mauricio Pochettino echo the words of the Arsenal board and Arsene Wenger – and they were lies.

Arsene Wenger manager of Arsenal (right) and Ivan Gazidis, CEO of Arsenal. Picture: Clive Rose/Getty Images
Arsene Wenger manager of Arsenal (right) and Ivan Gazidis, CEO of Arsenal. Picture: Clive Rose/Getty Images

“Daniel Levy explained that any sleeve sponsorship may compromise the value of the [stadium] naming rights deal, so the naming rights would come first,” a spokesperson for the Tottenham Hotspur Supporters Trust said after a meeting with the Spurs chairman. Levy also revealed that the naming rights for the stadium are “still under discussion”, a worrying development for them given the stadium was meant to be open months ago.

This follows from Mauricio Pochettino playing the Arsene-Wenger-Like-A-New-Signing game.

Levy explained, “[Pochettino] didn’t want to sign someone for the sake of it. He felt there were sufficient players in the squad, and that those coming back from injury would be like new signings.”

Sound familiar?

They said it wouldn’t affect spending. They told us it would help us compete. Am I talking Arsenal or Spurs?

LONDON - OCTOBER 5: Manager Arsene Wenger of Arsenal poses outside Arsenal Football Club's new Emirates Stadium development at Ashburton Grove on October 5, 2004 in London. Arsenal have just announced the stadium will be called the Emirates Stadium for the next fifteen years after signing a new sponsorship deal with Emirates. (Photo by Paul Gilham/Getty Images)
LONDON – OCTOBER 5: Manager Arsene Wenger of Arsenal poses outside Arsenal Football Club’s new Emirates Stadium development at Ashburton Grove on October 5, 2004 in London. Arsenal have just announced the stadium will be called the Emirates Stadium for the next fifteen years after signing a new sponsorship deal with Emirates. (Photo by Paul Gilham/Getty Images)

It doesn’t matter because both clubs said the same thing and both clubs lied, as Spurs fans will realise.

Whisper it quietly but Arsenal fans can help Tottenham come to terms with what they are about to go through. It might have seemed like bitterness stemming from their rivalry, but when Arsenal fans tried to tell their Tottenham counterparts they were in for a rough ride, they were being sincere.

Mostly.

Spurs are the only ‘top’ side not to have bought any players. They can argue they don’t need to, given how well they played last season but a). they won nothing and b). if you aren’t improving you are going backwards.

Daniel Levy already told Tottenham fans that their new stadium would not impact their ability to buy players, and here he is confirming it again.

It’s a tale Arsenal fans are familiar with. They heard the same for around eight years after they moved to the Emirates only for the board and management to then use the fact they were hamstrung by the stadium move to finally justify a lack of spending and sales of big stars.

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Daily Mail 4 August 2018

That was Arsenal’s model and it could well be Tottenham’s too – buy young, sell high.

Between Arsenal taking up residence in the Emirates in 2006 and Mesut Ozil’s arrival in 2013 heralding the removal of the financial shackles (to some degree), the club sold Thierry Henry, Jose Reyes, Freddie Ljungberg, Alex Hleb, Gilberto Silva, Emmanuel Adebayor, Kolo Toure, Eduardo, Cesc Fabregas, Samir Nasri, Gervinho, Gael Clichy, Robin van Persie and Alex Song for a considerable chunk of change.

They also sold tons of youth and fringe players while releasing more for nothing including Mathieu Flamini (the first time) and Andrei Arshavin.

Spurs will hope that their young players stick around but, as the reality of the mortgage payments on a shiny new home kicks in, many of those players will release they can double and triple their wages elsewhere.

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Daily Mail 7 August 2018

Money that comes from selling them won’t be reinvested in the squad, at least not adequately. Tottenham will hope Mauricio Pochettino can wring the same results from a lesser squad. That’s assuming his head doesn’t get turned as well.

For all Arsene Wenger’s faults, there was never a danger of him leaving Arsenal in the lurch. One of the many guarantees Arsenal had to give to secure funding to build the Emirates was that Wenger would remain in charge. He signed up knowing it meant he was unlikely to taste glory for some time.

Will Pochettino feel the same? Is he as embedded at Spurs as Wenger was with Arsenal? That seems unlikely.

Football rivalry makes it easy to laugh when the other side are suffering but what is about to happen at Spurs doesn’t have to be the way it goes. They could have learned from the frustration Arsenal caused their fans and been a bit more honest with their projections. But why should they?

When fans will swallow most of what a club tells them, what incentive is there to be honest?